Fourteen by C.M. Smith (short story to read .txt) 📕

science fair, and then we’d hash everything out. I wanted to get it all sorted out with him, and if that meant staying up half the night—oh, Dad will love that—then I’d do it. He’d wormed his way into my heart at some point, and dammit if I didn’t want him back there.

“Anna!”

I turned to see Evan running toward me, the sound of his cleats obnoxiously hitting the pavement. I stopped and fidgeted with my key ring again as he stopped in front of me.

“Hey,” he said, breathless.

“Hi. Uh, congrats on the win,” I said, nervously biting the inside of my cheek. “You did really well.”

“Thanks. Are you leaving?”

“Yeah.”

“Oh. I, uh . . . I’m sorry that Kyle asked you to come . . .”

“Please don’t be.”

“I told him to leave you alone until . . . but he’s just . . .”

“It’s okay.”

He looked down at the ground, shifting from foot to foot as he rubbed the back of his neck.

“You were . . . your family is inside, Evan, what are you doing out here with me?” I jingled my keys in my hand.

“I see them all the time.” He reached out his hand and then dropped it again, shifting uncomfortably. “I don’t see you enough.”

“You see me plenty in school.”

He just tilted his head and looked down at his feet.

“Is this . . . are you really done with me?”

“No,” I said, looking down at my feet. “We just need to talk.”

“What about tonight?”

“You just had a game, Evan. You’ve got to be exhausted.”

He shrugged. “I’m still pumped, actually. Adrenaline high. If you don’t want to, that’s fine. I just thought that maybe since you were already here, and we’re kind of already talking that we could . . . not stop?”

“You really want to do this tonight?”

“Tonight. Yesterday. Last Saturday morning.” I tilted my head, and he shrugged, laughing nervously. “It’s true.”

“Okay, fine.”

“Seriously?”

“Grey’s?”

“Grey’s,” he confirmed.

“And yes, seriously,” I added.

“Did you want to wait or did you want to meet somewhere else?”

“Come to the playground,” I suggested. “It’s on Hunter Street.”

“No crawling through the woods this time, huh?”

“I figured that you’ve had your fill of seeing imaginary snakes and feeling imaginary furry things, so . . .”

“I appreciate that.”

“You’re welcome,” I said with a small smile.

“I’ll uh . . . I’ll meet you there, then?” he asked, rocking back and forth on his heels.

“Yeah.”

“I won’t be long. Was there a certain time that you needed to be home?”

“I’ll stop by my house and tell my dad. See what time he wants me back.”

“I’ll hurry.”

I looked down at my feet. “All right.”

“I’ll see you soon.”

I was just about to walk away when he took my arm, turned me around, and brushed his lips across my cheek.

“Thank you, Anna,” he whispered.

“Yeah,” I said. My voice broke as I took a step back from him. “Hunter Street.”

“Got it.”

He turned and ran toward the school, and I breathed a heavy sigh before going to my car. I climbed in, drove back to my house, and left the car running as I went inside. My dad was sitting on the couch, the coffee table covered with papers with a pen tucked behind his ear. He looked over at me once before patting the papers in front of him, looking for the pen.

“How was the game?”

I walked over to him, took the pen from his ear, and handed it to him. He chuckled and dropped it on the table.

“We won. Uh, I’m gonna meet Evan out at the playground,” I said, clearing my throat.

He stared at me.

“Midnight,” he said as he picked up the pen.

“Thanks.”

“Yep.”

Well, at least we were making a little bit of progress. It was taking time, and it wasn’t a complete one hundred percent father-daughter relationship, but it was a tiny bit better than it had been. I got to the empty playground and walked over to the merry-go-round to sit between the bars; it creaked as I pushed myself.

This was my chance to ask him everything I didn’t understand, and all I felt was an all-encompassing fear. I wanted to know the answers to everything I’d been wondering about, but I was afraid all my fears would be realized. That this was just a joke, he had only been kidding, and I meant less to him than I did before. Though he’d consistently tried to make contact with me since the party, it was still so hard to comprehend that he’d changed this much over three weeks’ time. It was so hard to comprehend that he’d changed this much because of me. Headlights suddenly appeared, and I watched Evan park his car behind mine. The headlights died out, and the sound of his car door slamming echoed in the quiet neighborhood. I took yet another deep breath and set my feet firmly on the ground, stopping the motion of the merry-go-round and waiting for him to appear.

He approached, keys jingling as they hung from his hand. “Hey,” he said, stopping in front of me.

“Hi.” I indicated the empty space next to me. “Care to join me?”

He sat down, dropping his keys on the space next to him.

“Can I explain it all to you now?” he asked, folding his hands in his lap.

I closed my eyes and, laid down on the hard surface, my legs still dangling off the side. Then I raised my legs and placed my feet flat on the edge.

“Yeah.”

“You know that Steve throws these parties whenever his parents are out of town, and I always used to go to them. It was just common knowledge that I’d attend, and I never disappointed. Grace took the video; I thought she was only taking a picture. I was drunk, and I was on my way to being pretty damn high, and I didn’t . . . I didn’t know you.”

“Do you think—?”

“Please just let me finish?” he pled.

“Fine.” I kept my eyes closed. “We were being assholes, and Steve asked me that just because it was when we